Thomas Breen photo
Ron Hurt addressing neighbors.
Hill Alder Ron Hurt formally apologized for supporting a new in-patient substance abuse treatment center without first consulting his constituents, and succeeded in buying neighbors a bit more time to weigh in on the project before it moves ahead.
Hurt, who represents Ward 3, made that apology Tuesday night at the regular monthly meeting of the Hill North Community Management Team in the auditorium of John C. Daniels Interdistrict Magnet School of International Communication on Congress Avenue.
The project in question is Cornell Scott-Hill Health Center’s planned construction of a new $20 million, 52-bed in-patient addiction recovery center on land that the community health center already owns at 232 – 236 Cedar St.
Tuesday’s Hill North management team meeting.
Hurt told the two dozen neighbors gathered in the room that he is sorry for having written a formal letter of support for the project back on May 17 before he or Hill Health had discussed the health center’s plans to close down its Grant Street in-patient treatment center and build a new, expanded version next to the existing South Central Rehabilitation Center at Cedar Street, Minor Street, and Howard Avenue.
“In May, I made a big mistake,” he said. “An honest mistake, but a big mistake.”
At Monday’s full Board of Alders meeting, Hurt informed the neighbors present, he had helped convince his legislative colleagues to table until Oct. 23 a vote on the city’s proposed sale of publicly owned parcels at 649 and 659 Howard Ave. to Hill Health for a combined sum of $125,000.
Those parcels were the subject of a recent Livable City Initiative (LCI) Board of Directors meeting at which Hill neighbors and Hill Health administrators struck a community benefits deal in exchange for support for the project. That deal allowed the project to earn a recommended approval from the LCI board without vocal neighborhood opposition.
But now that the Howard Avenue proposed sale has moved to the Board of Alders for a final sign-off, Hurt, feeling the heat from his constituents, succeeded in delaying a vote until the next full board meeting later this month.
“I still support the project,” Hurt said, “but I don’t support it more than my community.”
Leslie Radcliffe.
“I have to thank Alder Ron for trying to make things right,” Hill South resident and City Plan Commissioner Leslie Radcliffe said.
He has a right to his personal opinion, she said, but in his role as an alder, “he’s got to represent the community.” And that’s exactly what slowing down the proposed Howard Avenue sale at Monday night’s meeting has done.
That left the management team members with an even thornier issue to grapple with than trying to rein in a rogue alder. That was: What message should the team send to the city and to Hill Health about the neighborhood’s stance on the project? Should the team support it outright? Oppose it outright? Or recognize that it’s going to get built no matter what — and try to squeeze out as many community benefits from the project as possible?
Management Team Chair Howard Boyd and LCI Neighborhood Specialist Art Natalino, Jr.
Management Team Chair Howard Boyd said that there are already 24 different social service programs in the Hill North neighborhood. “Here is a program that’s trying to be pushed into the Hill,” he said about the Hill Health projet. “Do we need another?”
Where do you stand? an attendee asked Boyd. “I’m against,” Boyd said. But, he added, “I think we should put our heads together on this.”
Radcliffe, who had abstained from a previous City Plan Commission vote on the matter because of her vocal opposition to the Hill Health project at previous neighborhood meetings, said that she still doesn’t want the project built in the Hill — but now believes that, whether the community likes it or not, it’s coming.
“I support Cornell Scott and the necessary community health work they do in this city,” she said, “but I don’t support the over-concentration of social programs in the Hill.”
That said, she added, “You can’t always stop a train. And since the train is coming through,” Hill residents should make sure to get something out of this project to improve the quality of life in the neighborhood.
Willie Sanders.
Kossuth Street resident Willie Sanders disagreed. “Let the train go to another neighborhood,” he insisted. “Why can’t the train go to another neighborhood?” Why does this project have to be placed in the Hill community?
Another resident said he had protesters stop bulldozers, and that the team shouldn’t adopt a mentality that “we’ve already been beat.”
Radcliffe replied that Hill Health wants to locate this addiction recovery center at the proposed location because of its proximity to Yale New Haven Hospital. Hill Health CEO Michael Taylor has stressed at previous meetings the importance of building out this new center on land that the community health center already owns. The space it rents on Grant Street is in a city-owned building.
Dora Lee Brown.
Asylum Street resident Dora Lee Brown reminded attendees that Hector Miranda had helped gather nearly 300 signatures of Hill neighbors in opposition to the project before the last LCI Board of Directors meeting. The team shouldn’t forget about that sizable portion of the neighborhood clearly against the project.
But, she said, she recognized that this center might be built regardless of whether or not neighbors support it, and so the community should make sure to lay out clear conditions for Hill Health so that it gets something in return.
“I think we’ve got to ask for more than just a room to meet in,” she said, referencing the previous deal that Miguel Pittman, Calvin Counsel, and Boyd had agreed to with Hill Health — that is, for the latter to set aside a designated community management team meeting space in the planned new recovery center.
Miguel Pittman.
Pittman agreed. “We can’t stop this train,” he said. “It’s gonna happen.” The question now, he said, is: “What can we get?”
Ultimately the team’s eligible voting members voted eight to four in support of backing the project, with conditions.
Boyd said the team will hold a brainstorming meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 15 at 6 p.m. at John C. Daniels School to come up with a detailed list of community benefits that the management team would like Hill Health to agree to in exchange for support for the project. The team will then hold another meeting on Wednesday, Oct. 16 at 6 p.m. in the same spot, he said, to present and discuss that list with any management team members not able to make it out on Tuesday.
Boyd encouraged the team members to take heart in the fact that the alders delayed their vote on this project and that their own alder has stepped back from his prior unconditional support all because Hill North neighbors voiced their complaints and made themselves heard at City Hall. This latest chapter in the citywide conversation around who speaks for a community, he suggested, has been strongly influenced by residents demanding a role in determining how their neighborhoods shift and change.
“They’re starting to hear our voices and see our faces,” he said. “They know we’re empowering ourselves.”
“Our voices,” he continued, “are starting to be heard.”